HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY

1. General Statement :

The Greek Orthodox Community of Manchester is working towards a comprehensive health and safety policy and is committed to abide by the Health and Safety at Work Act. This lays down certain duties on all Trustees, Committee Members, volunteers, and teachers. The duties are to take care of their own safety and that of other committee members, teachers/ volunteers and visitors, and to co-operate with the trustee board and its officers to enable it to carry out its responsibilities. In particular, committee members, teachers/volunteers have a duty to:

• work safely, efficiently and without endangering the health and safety of children, church attendees, visitors to the church and the school and of themselves, their colleagues or any other person who has a right of access to the Church or Hellenic School of Manchester premises at any time
• adhere to safety procedures laid down by the Greek Orthodox Community of Manchester, which are reviewed from time to time, and conform to all instructions given by those with a responsibility for health and safety
• record all accidents, near-miss occurrences and hazardous situations in the health and safety/accident book and report them to the next Church Committee /teachers’ meeting.
• meet their other statutory safety obligations, including that laid down in Section 8 of the Act, which states that ‘no person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare in pursuance of any of the relevant statutory provisions’.

2 Organisation and responsibilities

2.1 Trustee board/management committee

The ultimate responsibility for health and safety within the Church and School premises lies with the Community Trustee Board. The Trustee Board shall appoint one person from the Church Committee (Preferably the Chairman)  and one person from the School Management Committee (preferably the coordinator), who will take the responsibility for drawing to the attention of the Trustee Board, committee members, teachers and volunteers any health and safety matters that need to be discussed and/or acted upon.

2.2 Delegated responsibility

The Chairman of the Church Committee and the Coordinator of the Hellenic School of Manchester and/or the Assistant Chairman/Co-Ordinator, shall be given delegated responsibility for ensuring that the health and safety policy is carried out within the organisation. They will be given delegated responsibility for:

• carrying out regular safety inspections in the rooms utilised by Church attendees/ Hellenic School of Manchester
• ensuring that teachers and pupils are provided with suitable seating and appropriate computer workstations
• ensuring that floors, aisles and fire exits are kept clear, as far as reasonably practical, of any furnishings, trailing wires, equipment, stationery, and so on.
• ensuring that the general fabric of the church/church hall/school (including office items and equipment used by teachers) is clean and well maintained.
• investigating and reporting accidents and putting forward suggestions for improvement and lessons learnt.
• ensuring that a health and safety policy poster is displayed on church notice board and a copy given to all trustees/committee members, to all teachers/volunteers and that they are aware of its contents.
• ensuring that all trustees/committee members, teachers /volunteers are aware of the specific fire escapes and fire extinguishers within the community buildings
• ensuring that trustees/committee members, teachers /volunteers are made familiar with the alarm systems within the buildings and action to be taken in the event of a fire
• drawing to the attention of the trustee board, committee members and teachers/volunteers any new legislation on health and safety relevant to the work of Greek Church and Hellenic School of Manchester
• drawing to the committee members/trustee board’s attention any matters that they are unable to deal with.

2.3 Trustees/Committee Members/Teaching Staff /volunteers

All Trustees, Committee Members, Teachers and volunteers have a responsibility to:

• read and fully understand the Greek Community of Manchester’s policy statement and the procedures to be carried out in the event of an emergency; if there is any doubt about the meaning, they must seek clarification from the Chairman/Co-ordinator and the head teacher.
• Co-operate with each other, as appropriate, to achieve a healthy and safe place of worship, study and workplace and to take reasonable care of themselves, church attendees, children and visitors to the school.
• report to the Chairman/ Coordinator or Head teacher within 24 hours of any accident occurring:

• on the premises
• off the premises, while acting on behalf of the Greek Church/Hellenic School of Manchester

• bring to the notice of the Committee Chairman/ School Coordinator /Head Teacher any potentially dangerous circumstances that the Committee members/teachers/volunteers are unable to put right.

2.4 Review

The Chairman/Co-ordinator, in conjunction with the head teacher, will keep this policy under constant review to reflect any changes in legislation. The policy will be fully reviewed every two years and any suggested alterations will be subject to approval by the trustee board.

3 General Arrangements

3.1 Accidents, near-miss occurrences and hazardous situations

The Greek Church/ Hellenic School of Manchester have a health and safety accident book located in the Church/School office and all incidents, no matter how small, must be recorded as soon as possible after the incident. The incident should also be reported to the Committee Chairman/School Coordinator as appropriate. In addition to reporting accidents, it is equally important to report near misses and potential hazards, to enable preventative action to be taken before it is too late. Once an incident has been recorded in the accident book, the follow up action to resolve or deal with the matter must also be logged.

It is the responsibility of the Committee Chairman/ School Coordinator /Head Teacher to ensure that any necessary follow-up action is taken to reduce the risk of the accident or near accident reoccurring and recorded in the log book.

The Chairman/ Coordinator/Head Teacher are responsible for reporting incidents which come within the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), to the Environmental Health Department. RIDDOR covers the following incidents:

• fatal accidents
• major injury accidents/conditions
• dangerous occurrences
• accidents causing more than three days’ incapacity for work
• certain work-related diseases.

A first-aid kit is available in the Church, Chrurch/School hall and school office. These are regularly inspected and replenished as and when required by the assistant Coordinator (xxxxxxxxxx).

3.2 General fire safety

All Trustees/Committee members /teachers and volunteers must also read and understand the fire procedure and fire safety policy of the school. The Fire Safety Policy and fire notice is located in the school office.

The Committee Chairman/School Coordinator are responsible for the maintenance of the fire-fighting equipment and the arrangement of regular fire safety checks and fire drills, which are documented. The Chairman/Coordinator also holds a record of fire alarm and emergency lights inspections by qualified engineers. The Chairman is also responsible to ensure that the school premises are regularly inspected and granted an electricity certificate and a gas certificate.

4 Personal safety

• Teachers or volunteers who are working on their own should not allow access to casual visitors who have no appointment.
• All windows and entry doors will be lockable.
• Teachers and volunteers who are going to be away from the school should inform the head teacher and if the head teacher is not contactable, they should inform other staff where they will be, how long for and how they can be contacted.
• Teachers and volunteers should inform the head teacher and provide contact details in the event of an emergency.
• Visits to the local shops are not allowed during school hours.
• Children should never be left unsupervised.
• Staff should not put themselves at risk on account of the Greek Church/Greek School of Coventry property.
• All incidents of aggression or violence and any threat to personal safety of committee members, teachers/volunteers should be reported to the Chairman/Coordinator and recorded in the accident book.
• Staff should be vigilant with regards to terrorist incident warnings – for example, unattended bags.

5 Stress Management

The Greek Church/ Hellenic School of Manchester promote a friendly and enjoyable environment for both church attendees, volunteers, teachers and pupils where teaching and learning is a team work experience.

However it is recognised that stress at work can be a serious issue: teachers/volunteers can suffer severe medical problems, which can result in under-performance at work, and cause major disruptions to the organisation.

• The responsibility for reducing stress at the school lies both with the School Management Committee and fellow teachers /volunteers. We all have a responsibility for ensuring our colleagues and children are happy whist at school and should show a genuine interest in each other’s welfare. Similarly we are all responsible for safeguarding the welfare of all church attendees and visitors to our premises.
• The School Coordinator and head teacher should be particularly aware of any possible causes of stress to teachers and school volunteers, and ensure that they do not cause any member of the team to suffer any stress, nor cause an increase in stress on others.
• If a teacher/volunteer is suffering from stress at work, they should discuss this with the head teacher and /or the Chairman at the first opportunity. Where practicable and reasonable, the Hellenic School of Manchester will seek to provide assistance to the person concerned,
• The Trustees/Committee members responsible for the efficient running of the Greek Church and the Hellenic School of Manchester are committed to do all they can to eradicate problems relating to stress at work.